Yahoo acquires QuikIO, yet another startup to add to its video team

Early this morning, the creators of a little known but excellent cross-platform video streaming app called QuikIO sent a farewell note to its users. After December 31, the “FedEx of media files” would be shut down, the email said.

When I sent an email to founder and CEO Michael Chen asking him what happened, my query was directed to a Yahoo public relations representative. And so I learned of yet another Yahoo media acquisition.

“I can confirm that three employees from QuikIO have joined Yahoo's video team in Sunnyvale,” the Yahoo spokesperson said in an email. “We’re excited to welcome the team to Yahoo and aren't going to comment further on deal terms or future plans.”

Neither Yahoo nor QuikIO was willing to reveal details of the deal. It sounds like it’s an acqui-hire and that the product, which streams content between devices regardless of their location, will not be revived inside Yahoo.

Both CEO Chen, a VoIP expert who left a manager role at Cisco to start the company, and QuikIO cofounder and VP of engineering Xumin Wu, another Cisco alum, have updated their LinkedIn profiles to reflect their new place of employment. We don’t know who the third new Yahooer is, but it’s apparently not QuikIO’s third founder, Budi Sutardja, another Cisco veteran, who had already left the company.

Personally, I’m sad to see the end of QuikIO. I found it useful for playing videos on my iPad that were stored on my laptop. In its shutdown email, the QuikIO team recommends Plex, Tonido, Air Video, and Air Playit as alternatives.

This acquisition ticks a few different boxes for the Sunnyvale company, most notably in mobile and video. QuikIO joins a host of other startups in those categories that have been acquired under Marissa Mayer’s leadership, including Evntlive, Ptch, Qwiki, and OnTheAir. QuikIO had raised $1.28 million in venture funding from Singapore-based Enspire Capital.